ADA-8XR multi-channel modular AD/DA converter

Overview

The ADA-8XR is a multi-channel AD/DA converter that can be configured in numerous ways using plug-in modules to suit a very wide
variety of applications. It can be a 16 channel AD converter, a 16 Channel DA converter
or an 8 channel AD/DA converter. It can be a multi-channel
FireWire interface, or an AES/EBU / AES3 / SPDIF Digital to Analogue or Analogue to Digital
converter. It can act as a high resolution Pro
Tools Interface for recording or post-production. Similarly it can
work with a wide range of other popular Digital Audio Workstations
(DAWs) including Logic, Cubase, Nuendo and others. In fact,
there's not a lot it can't do when it comes to digital audio conversion.

Applications

The ADA-8XR is the top professionals' converter of choice in the most
exacting applications in music and sound recording, mastering, broadcast and post-production.
Offering the cleanest and most transparent conversion
available, the ADA-8XR is ideal for producers, engineers and
songwriters wanting to produce top-quality results when recording,
tracking & overdubbing, mixing to stereo or surround, mastering
and monitoring. The ADA-8XR is perfect for recording vocal,
single instruments, drums or orchestra and is just as much at home
providing multiple outputs for external analogue summing. It
is in use in the top studios around the world as well as being used in
numerous film sound tracks.

Design Philosophy

The ADA-8XR takes the philosophy of the widely-acclaimed Prism Sound converter range a stage further: Now, the
goals of ultimate sound quality, unbeatable
performance and un-matched versatility have been realised in
a modular multi-channel, 24-bit 192kHz-capable format.
The ADA-8XR provides A/D and D/A conversion and the
essential digital interfaces with a stereo monitor mix output in digital and analogue formats.

Clocking and Synchronization

Unlike most other converter systems, the ADA-8XR is ideal as a master clock for your
entire system, whether running from its precision internal reference or
from an external source. No external clock source can improve the
performance or influence the sound of the ADA-8XR. In addition, the
ADA-8XR can run in Pro Tools Loop Sync mode, or lock to AES3, AES11 or
Wordclock. The ADA-8XR delivers your recordings with perfect
transparency, whatever the setup.

Configuration options

The ADA-8XR is a modular system and this provides great flexibility when creating
systems with larger numbers of channels. Whether you need just a few
channels of high-quality conversion or large a multi-track setup, the ADA-8XR is the natural choice. Using
combinations of the basic system options and the range of digital
interfaces you can build the system that perfectly matches your
requirements. For more detail see the ADA-8XR Configurations
section.

ADA-8XR Summary

Channel Configurations

Up to 16 channels of state-of-the art 24-bit, 192kHz conversion in one great-sounding 2U package.

Digital Interface options

Pro Tools|HD - replace 192IO/96IOs; up to
32 channels in and out per Digi Core/Process card;

Pro Tools|24 MIX - direct connection in
place of 888|IO;

DSD
- for SACD production, with SDIF2/3
and optional MAC-DSD (Cat5); also allows sample-rate-conversion
between any PCM rates;

For computers without FireWire,
the FireWire equipped ADA-8XR can also be used with Thunderbolt equipped computers via third party Thunderbolt to FireWire adaptors. Of course FireWire adaptors are also available for ExpressCard and various flavours of PCI cards.